| Description |
: |
Capt. Homer Claymore, a Lakota Sioux and pilot in the 305th BG, 366th BS, poses with his B-17G, which he named “Chief Crazy Horse.” Claymore lost his first Chief Crazy Horse when the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He was wounded in the arm but managed to get the crippled plane back to the base in Chelveston, England. According to letters he wrote to the family, he had done the nose art on the first Crazy Horse and soon began painting his second plane, named Chief Crazy Horse II. On June 18, 1944, while flying a mission over Hamburg, Germany, Claymore’s plane was shot down. 305th BG Commander Col. Ernest H. Lawson "Curly" was on board serving as the Command Pilot (Lead Plane) of the formation on this mission, and was KIA. Claymore was the pilot of the lead aircraft, meaning he was flying the plane and Col. Lawson was in the Co-Pilot's seat. Only the bombardier survived, Mr. Stephen Wurtz, Maj, USAF ret. Wurtz spent the next year in a German prison camp. The fate of Homer Claymore and the rest of his crew remained a mystery the next two years. "My mother was told that Homer was missing in action," Homer’s sister Ina remembered sadly. "But we didn't know anything until 1946 when they finally told us he had been killed." |
